BYG is a mobile-first marketplace to discover and book fitness centres

It's not every day that you meet a person who has dedicated his entire life to fitness. And it's even rare to meet someone who has taken it up a notch by aspiring to inspire more than a billion people to make fitness a way of life.

A former employee of Goldman Sachs and a self-confessed fitness enthusiast, 28-year-old Devi Prasad Biswal saw an opportunity in the lackadaisical state of fitness centres in India. That's when BYG came into force.

Pronounced 'big', BYG is a mobile-first marketplace that creates a platform for users to discover and book fitness centres. Once registered, they can choose from an array of workouts and group exercises in their location that are listed along with their subscription fees in order of their rating.

Yet, this 'big' initiative started on the back of a small incident in a gym in Bangalore where Biswal had been working out for the last 5 years.

"The idea of BYG was more accidental than something I had planned out in advance," says Biswal, founder of BYG.

"I understood the challenges around working out in a gym when a friend, who just wanted a 3-month membership, was charged almost the same amount as I was for a full year. People, particularly youngsters, are constantly on the move and most of them don't want to lock themselves with a gym membership for a long period of time. That's when I came up with the idea of Workout Now."

Workout Now gives one the option of working out wherever and whenever for a mere Rs. 20 to Rs. 200. This dynamic pricing model is based on how full or empty the gym is. Most gyms are occupied only for a couple of hours a day and run empty most of the time. Same applies to group exercise classes like yoga or zumba. So, dynamic pricing makes sense for customers in India who are price-sensitive.

"I've been using this app for close to 10 days now and I'm not complaining," says Akash Gehani, co-founder of Instamojo. "My job requires me to travel a lot but this app helps me continue my work out without committing to any gym." Preeti Negi, HR Manager at Swiggy concurs, "I like the fact that I'm only paying for the service I'm using instead of paying a yearly subscription fee. I just wished they had launched an iOS app as well."

Fitting time for fitness

Biswal says people in India have latched on to the idea of keeping fit despite today's fast-paced world and believes that his product has clicked with the Indian masses.

"When I was in college, smoking was the 'in' thing among my seniors. Today, being fit has become the new cool, a case in point being film stars in the 90s compared to those today. And this is not just limited to the entertainment industry," says Biswal.

However, fitness is a motivation-based concept and he couldn't agree more. "Fitness is driven by inspiration to a great extent. I was always into sports but started working out only after I picked up the habit from my peers at MDI. This is the direction any trend takes. When a few people try out something, others will follow soon enough."

Powering through

Ideated in October last year and subsequently launched on January 31, the app has already trended on Google Play and has crossed 15,000 downloads. It has tie-ups with close to 800 fitness centers in the country and has clocked nearly 1 lakh in revenues within just 15 days of its inception. The response has even surprised its founder.

"Being an entrepreneur and having worked at Goldman, I always knew this idea would take off. I also see potential in it to be the next Uber," says Biswal. It is currently functional in 5 cities in India, that is Bangalore, Delhi, Bombay, Pune and Bhubaneshwar, and is looking to expand its footprint in markets abroad, including the US, Singapore, Brazil and Columbia.

Money & muscle

However, it hasn't come without its share of back-breaking research and exploration. Being a fitness-enthusiast for almost a decade now and having gym directors in his social circle, Biswal always knew a lot about the industry, but he had his work cut out for him when it came to understanding the specifics of clocking profits in this kind of business.

"All gyms listed with our app have signed a contract with us whereby we receive a 20% commission on every transaction," says Biswal. The gyms also end up making profits even without incurring any expenditure in terms of extra equipment or trainers.

The other big source of revenue is Big Pulse. This CRM tool enables gyms to track its development. "In my research, I discovered that this industry is 90% unorganized. Most gyms don't maintain any kind of record, let alone update information on how much profit they are making," says Biswal.

Using Big Pulse, they can directly track utilization of the gym. This includes membership details like expiration dates. "Gym renewals are like insurance. You know you need it, but you still need constant reminders. Because of the absence of proper records, renewal rates in gyms are just 15-20%. We help fill this gap," he says.

Training for the big run

Biswal also doesn't underestimate the importance of identifying the right markets rather than blindly scaling up. "We offer gyms a lot of information for a nominal cost of Rs 3,000 per month for the basic Big Pulse and Rs 15,000 a month for the pro service that gives all industry data. For the 10-15% companies that are looking to expand, this is not a big amount and is usually covered with a single yearly membership fee," he says.

And as with any market, even BYG is haggling for space where contemporaries like Fitternity and Gympic have existed for more than 2 years. But the founder of this new startup is not perturbed.

"These companies are mostly listing websites where users can only find rates, discover deals etc. BYG, on the other hand, has concentrated solely on increasing fitness penetration. In fact, our overall vision is to increase fitness penetration in India 10 times in the next 5 years," says Biswal.

"Our competitors are just creating platforms for existing fitness enthusiasts to get more information. But we are enabling every single individual to set up fitness schedules that suit their lifestyles, thus personalising this industry," he adds.

Self-funded and conceptualized along with co-founder Avijeet Alagathi, BYG is now in talks with various investors as it seeks funding. It also plans to launch an iOS app and develop a website soon.